How old is estella great expectations

There's something inherently self-destructive about this choice, making her not so dissimilar from the self-destructive Pip, choosing the one thing that's guaranteed to make her miserable. Perhaps they're meant for each other after all. Parents Home Homeschool College Resources. Study Guide. By Charles Dickens.

Previous Next. Estella Havisham Estella may be beautiful, but she's as chilly as Frozone , freezing the hearts of everyone around her—including her adopted mom, Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham gets mad at her for pushing her away, and she points out that it's totally Miss Havisham's fault for making her unable to love: Do you reproach me for being cold?

I will further show that social and economic aspects play a vital role in their relationship. Estella has, in fact, two mothers: the murderess Molly and the vindictive old Miss Havisham. Although both women differ tremendously as to their social status and personal history, they have one thing in common: both women are in their own way revengeful and ruthless. With these two mothers Estella appears to be destined of becoming a similarly cruel woman.

The little girl is thus brought up in a dark and dingy place, where everything seems to rot away, and where there is no room for anything but melancholy and contempt for the outside world. Growing up in such cold and hostile surroundings has made Estella into what she is.

In this cruel scheme Pip is a mere guinea pig for Estella to practice her heart-breaking skills on. She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen. There was no discrepancy of years between us, to remove her far from me; we were of nearly the same age […]; but the air of inaccessibility which her beauty and her manner gave her, tormented me in the midst of my delight […] Wretched boy!

She is thousands of miles away from me. I adopted her to be loved. I bred her and educated her to be loved. I developed her into what she is, that she might be loved. Love her! I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.

SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Who are Estella's parents? Why does Pip become ashamed of Joe? She also shows a sort of loyalty to Pip when she tells him she will toy with all men, but him. There is an acknowledgement that she knows Pip loves her, she cannot love him, and therefore she will not be with a man who will realize she has nothing to give him.

Yet underneath this rigid unemotional surface is the passion and emotional fury of her parents, Molly and Magwitch. The one time she responds to Pip and lets him kiss her is when he displays rare aggression and forcefulness in beating the Pale Young Gentleman. There is, deep within her, something that responds to emotional fury.